SC registrar rejects NAB request for volume 10 of JIT report

NAB may file application in apex court seeking provision of classified part of Panama Papers inquiry report

ISLAMABAD: Registrar Office of the Supreme Court has declined a request from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to provide volume 10 of the report compiled by the six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the offshore assets of the Sharif family.

Sources in the NAB told The Express Tribune that the bureau had made a requisition in the Supreme Court’s registrar office a few days ago, seeking certified copies of all volumes for filing references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his children in line with the top court’s July 28 verdict.

However, the SC office has provided nine volumes to the NAB, refusing to give volume 10.



A senior NAB official has also confirmed that despite a requisition, volume 10 has not been provided to the NAB Regional Bureau for Ralwalpindi. “We have been given nine volumes to file references against the ex-PM and his children,” he added.

The sources also revealed that the NAB might file a proper application in the apex court, seeking volume 10. However, a decision will be taken on the legal advice of the NAB prosecutor general.

On July 10, the JIT had requested the apex court to keep the said volume confidential as according to JIT head Wajid Zia, it could help in carrying out further investigations. Later, the Sharif family’s counsel Khawaja Haris filed an application requesting the SC to make volume 10 public.

However, during the hearing, when the apex court’s three-judge bench – headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan – asked the counsel to examine specific pages of the volume, Haris himself withdrew his request.

Details of Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) requests have been mentioned in volume 10.



In its volume-1, the report said the JIT contacted authorities in six countries for MLA. These included British Virgin Islands’ attorney general, the UK Home Office, Saudi Arabia’s ministry of interior, UAE’s ministry of justice, Switzerland’s Central Authority, and Luxemburg’s prosecutor general.

The report said two of these countries had provided ample evidence that became a vital source of information submitted before the Supreme Court, but responses from four countries were still awaited. Details of all these communications have been mentioned in volume 10 of the report.

Legal experts believe that the information contained in the classified volume might be more damaging for Nawaz Sharif and his family. They say there is enough material available in the nine volumes of the JIT report to file references in line with the Supreme Court’s July 28 judgment.

The top court in its verdict ordered the NAB to file the references within six weeks before the accountability court of Rawalpindi-Islamabad on the basis of the material collected and referred to by the JIT that probed into Sharif’s offshore assets as revealed in April last year by Panama Papers.

A senior NAB official said arrest of any member of the Sharif family for investigation was not mandatory under the law. “It is left to the NAB chief’s discretion to issue arrest warrant for the accused. The NAB issues an arrest warrant if an accused tries to escape its investigations,” he added.Islamabad